Women may be kept out of Special Ops due to concerns soldiers will be more interested in each other than their missions.

Starting in 2016, women will be regularly assigned to combat roles, but may not be assigned to elite units such as the Navy SEALS and Army Rangers over fears by former commandos they may distract the male members of the team.

Explaining that these fears are largely unfounded and being used as an excuse to keep them out of highly sought after assignments, female soldiers point to women on Special Operations teams in Afghanistan and ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ as proof they are fit.

Boys club: Female soldiers may be kept out of elite Navy SEAL and Army Ranger units over sex fears

A number of former soldiers told NBC News that assigning female soldiers to teams of anywhere from 12 to two would pose problems while far from home or even any other human contact for extended periods of time. These hook-ups could lead to jealousy and infighting on the team, affecting its cohesion and, ultimately, its effectiveness.

‘It can shift the focus of doing the job if everybody’s trying to get laid. I know it sounds incredibly juvenile, but it’s incredibly true,’ former Airborne Ranger and Special Forces sergeant Jack Murphy told NBC News. Murphy, who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq added that adding women would ‘make the entire team useless.’

Custom fit: Army body armor designed to fit women's physiques has already been deployed with women serving in Afghanistan

Having overseen 20 women who have served in Afghanistan, Colleen Farrell disagrees.

Calling the female Marines she supervised as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps reserves from 2010 to 2011 the most professional Marines she ever led, Farrell said ‘they are there for the mission. They’re not in Afghanistan to get married.’

Farrell said the last time military leaders tried to use this argument, with ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,’ it was eventually proven false. In the time since the policy that kept gays from openly serving in the military has since been repealed, there has been no proof any distraction exists, Farrell added.

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Amid this back and forth, military leadership has yet to determine whether or not women will be eligible for Special Operations roles.

‘We haven't made any decisions, whatsoever,’ Major General Bennet Sacolick told NBC News. Director of force management and Special Ops development, Sacolick added that he is aware of concerns among current units. The RAND Corp. has been enlisted to survey male members about the potential pitfalls of women Special Ops soldiers, according to NBC News.

Military leaders choosing to keep women out of specific combat roles will be forced to apply directly to the Defense Secretary for an exception, according to the New York Times.

Lock shot: One former Navy SEAL thinks women, such as these training at Fort Campbell, should be assigned to all-female units such as sniper teams

One compromise could be all-female units, such as sniper teams, the Soviets used to employ, according to Brandon Webb, a former Navy SEAL who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq – the most infamous of which killed 309 enemy combatants, mostly Germans, during the second World War.

Women make up about 15 percent of the military, and about 280,000 were deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the Times. Over the were killed in action, the paper noted.